


those four dirty paws

by tipsyProhibitionist



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Magic, Magic Mishaps, Multi, Potions, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 07:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4657674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tipsyProhibitionist/pseuds/tipsyProhibitionist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In hindsight it would have been advantageous to just take a sharpie and write “DOG POTION” on the bottles before storing them in his liquor cabinet, but he hadn’t wanted to take the time. He knew that it wasn’t regular old alcohol in there, so what could go wrong? </p><p>Except that now he’s looking at a shaggy yellow dog sitting on his couch, whining pathetically up at him. Fucking Niall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	those four dirty paws

**Author's Note:**

  * For [madsuptonogood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madsuptonogood/gifts).



> Title from _Dirty Paws_ by Of Monsters and Men. 
> 
> Written for my lovely friend, [Maddie](http://upinthefluff), for her birthday!!! Edited by me, but if you find any errors let me know! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated. (:

“Are you quite sure you’re doing that right?” asks Liam, chin resting on his hand and one eyebrow raised critically.

“Please, Liam,” says Louis, pausing momentarily to add a dash of powdered lizard scales to the concoction currently brewing on his stovetop. “I know what I’m doing. Years of witchcraft passed down through the family, remember?”

“Right… well, I’ve never actually seen you make a... you know, like, successful potion before. Remember the last time? You ended up with green eyebrows for the entire weekend!” Liam points out, gesturing wildly at his own eyebrows.

Louis rolls his eyes.

“Luckily for me, there’s such a thing as cosmetics,” he says dryly. He brandishes the wooden spoon in his hand at Liam and pokes him in the chest with it. “Besides, if you don’t want to be supportive of my endeavors you don’t _have_ to stay.”

Liam huffs and settles back down into his seat at the kitchen counter. “Well, somebody’s got to keep you from setting your house on fire…”

 _That’s more like it_ , Louis thinks, satisfied. He turns back to his potion and pokes his tongue out in concentration. The recipe that his mum gave him indicates that it should be turning a deep gold, but instead it’s still a shimmery purple. He frowns and rifles through the recipe one more time. Ah, yes! He’s forgotten to stir it. The instructions for which direction it should be stirred are a bit smudged so he can’t quite make it out, but he figures it’s not that big of a deal anyways. He settles on clockwise because that’s what most recipes call for.

Precisely seventeen stirs later, the potion has turned the correct color and Louis is grinning smugly.

“See? Told ya I could do it,” Louis says proudly, nudging Liam in the ribs. “And you doubted me. I can’t believe that you call yourself a good friend.”

Liam hums in response.

“You haven’t actually tested it out,” he points out. “You won’t know for sure it works right until you do.”

“Liaaaaam,” Louis groans. “Why must you be such a stick in the mud? It’ll work, I guarantee it.”

“Right, so, what even is this potion anyways?” Liam asks, catching a wiff of the substance and grimacing. “It smells like wet dog.”

“ _Well_ , my dear Payno, the smell is the dead giveaway,” smirks Louis, waving the spoon around, which causes a few drops of the potion to go flying through the air and hit various surfaces in small bursts of light.

“What?” Liam puzzles. “It’ll… make a dog wet?”

“Liam, no. Please, why would I make such a useless potion?” Louis scoffs. “No, it will turn it’s user _into_ a dog.”

Liam snorts. “And that’s supposed to be more useful than making a dog wet? What the hell are you gonna turn someone into a dog for?”

Louis’s eyes glint mischievously. “I was thinking of sending Grimmy a nice little bottle, actually. Have to make the antidote first, of course. Wouldn’t be very funny if I couldn’t turn him back before all hell breaks loose, would it?”

“No,” Liam agrees. “Nick would kill you if he ended up as a dog permanently.”

“Our dear Harold wouldn’t be too happy, either, I reckon. I doubt he wants to date an _actual_ dog,” Louis quips.

Liam laughs despite himself. “Now that’s just plain rude.”

Louis grins widely. They all like Nick well enough now, but when Harry had first started dating him, well… they’d had their suspicions. Luckily, Nick turned out to be an alright guy, but that hasn’t saved him from continuing to be the butt of many of Louis’s jokes.

“Shouldn’t you store that away before it over brews?” asks Liam, pointing at the potion which has begun to bubble quite aggressively.

Louis swears and turns off the heat. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks, mate.”

He riffles through the cabinets in search of anything that he can safely store the potion in. He comes up empty handed except for a few empty rum and vodka bottles. Liam opens his mouth, presumably to protest and lecture Louis on the importance of proper labeling, but Louis waves him off with the assurance that yes, he’ll be very, _very_ careful. He doesn’t actually want to turn into a dog himself, after all.

In hindsight it would have been advantageous to just take a sharpie and write “DOG POTION” on the bottles before storing them in his liquor cabinet, but he hadn’t wanted to take the time. _He_ knew that it wasn’t regular old alcohol in there, so what could go wrong?

Except that now he’s looking at a shaggy yellow dog sitting on his couch, whining pathetically up at him. Fucking Niall. How the hell had he looked at the _golden_ potion and thought that it was normal rum?

“Fuck!” Louis bites out in frustration. “What the fuck, Niall!”

Louis is panicking now, pulling harshly at his hair.

“What the bloody hell is going on, Louis?” barks Niall. He looks surprised that he can actually speak given that he’s a fucking dog, but with Louis The Witch as a best friend, stranger things have happened.

“Well, Niall, you’re a fucking dog,” says Louis, barely refraining from shouting.

“Yeah, I can see that! But why the hell am I a dog?” asks Niall, frantically turning in circles and probably ripping up Louis’s couch with his claws.

“As you can probably tell, that wasn’t rum that you mixed in with your coke, mate,” says Louis bitterly. “Why the hell were you even making yourself a drink? God, Niall, I haven’t even made the antidote yet, and the potion is untested! You could have died!”

“Hey, this isn’t exactly my fault, Lou,” Niall says, finally sitting his dog butt down. “It was in your cabinet and it wasn’t labeled or anythin’ so I thought it was just like… fancy rum.”

“ _Fancy rum_? Fucking hell...” Louis collapses onto the couch next to Niall and puts his head in his hands. This is a fucking disaster.

“I’m gonna call Liam,” he finally says, leaving Niall alone in the lounge. “Don’t like... chew up the coffee table or anythin’ while I’m gone.”

Niall actually laughs at that one, which surprises Louis. Even in dire situations, Niall somehow finds humor in everything.

He slumps off to the kitchen and pulls out his telly to call Liam, who picks up after two rings, greeting Louis cheerfully and starting to tell him about the cool batman theory that he’s found on some forum.

“Li, just—can you like, shut up for a mo’?” he asks tersely.

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Liam says. Louis can tell that he’s hurt by his tone of voice.

“Fuck, sorry, it’s just that… you know that stupid potion that I made the other day? The dog one?”

“Yeah, ‘course I remember. Couldn’t get the smell outta my head until Tuesday,” Liam jokes.

“Niall’s a dog,” says Louis bluntly. “A fucking dog, Liam.”

“What?!” Liam practically screams. Louis actually has to hold the phone back a little.

He launches into a tirade about how Louis should have labeled the stupid bottles and how Niall could have been seriously injured and thank _god_ he’s just a dog, Lou, what were you thinking?

“Liam!” Louis shouts; he coughs once to try and clear the tightness in his throat, but he’s horrified when it just intensifies. “I—I can’t—can you come over? Please?”

He hates how small his voice is and way that it wavers at the end. God, this such a disaster.

“Oh… yeah, ‘course. I’ll be over as fast as I can,” answers Liam.

Louis wipes roughly under his nose and eyes and tries to take a deep breath after he hangs up. If Niall sees that he’s been crying, it’ll freak him out even more. He takes one last shuddering breath before he puts on a brave face and goes out to sit with Niall while they wait for Liam.

Liam turns up nearly half an hour later, which Louis yells at him about for a bit before he finally lets him inside. It turns out that Liam went and picked up some pet supplies on the way over. He upturns a grocery bag onto the counter to reveal a leash and collar (“I’m not into the kinky shit, Liam,” jokes Niall), a rubber dog bone, and actual _dog food_.

“You don’t expect me to eat that, do you?” asks Niall in disgust, sniffing distrustfully at the bag.

“He talks?” observes Liam, kneeling down to peer thoughtfully at Niall.

Niall shoots Louis a pleading look when Liam starts to poke and prod at him.

“Erm, yeah. He talks. But I feel like that’s the last of our worries right now,” says Louis.

“Right, sorry. Just interesting, is all. So have you tried looking for the antidote yet?”

“Nope,” supplies Niall. Even as a dog he looks so fucking smug. Louis wants to kick him out of the house, but given the circumstances he figures that would be rather rude. “Louis’s spent the whole time waiting staring at the wall.”

Liam fixes Louis with a look. “Right… well have you considered calling your mum? She’d probably have the antidote stored away somewhere, yeah?”

“Yeah, guess so,” Louis mumbles, ashamed that he’d spent thirty minutes having a mental breakdown rather than doing anything productive.

His mum does have the recipe for the antidote it turns out. She emails him a copy of it, and in no time he’s got it brewing. The only issue is that it has to sit for nearly a week before the last ingredients can be added, which is not ideal.

Niall’s a whining, pacing mess when he hears the news, and it takes Liam and Louis almost an hour to calm him down enough for them to sit down and form a game plan (they discover that it’s actually really effective to scratch him behind the ears). The three of them decide that it’s best if Niall calls into work sick for now, and it’s so bizarre seeing Liam hold up his mobile to Niall so he can speak into it because he’s a _talking dog_.

They get through the rest of the day alright, Louis intermittently leaving the group to add ingredients to the antidote, but Liam has to leave just after dinnertime. Apparently he has plans with Sophia, and he’s promised Zayn that he would call afterwards.

“Will you come over tomorrow?” Louis asks anxiously as he sees Liam out. “I know that it’s a lot to ask, I just—I can’t—if something goes wrong—”

Liam puts a hand on Louis’s shoulder to stop his rambling. “It’s not a problem, ‘course I’ll come over. Wouldn’t want to miss Nialler’s first outing as an actual puppy, now would I?”

Louis huffs out a laugh. That’ll be something. And true to his word, Liam does show up the next day around eight in the morning, which is far too early according to Louis’s bedhead and Niall’s soft snores.

“I thought you would’ve had a late night last night, with your double dates and everything,” Louis grumbles, as he collapses onto the unoccupied portion of the couch. The rest is taken up by Niall, who is curled up into a tight ball; it’s odd how different it is from how he sleeps when he’s a human—all sprawling limbs and kicked off covers.

Louis can see a dull flush creep up Liam’s neck before he hurriedly ducks into the kitchen and out of sight.

“Right… well, I actually didn’t go to sleep last night. By the time I was, er, off the phone with Zayn it was practically morning anyhow. And I couldn’t stop worrying about Niall, so,” Louis hears Liam call out amidst the clatter of pots and pans as he searches for the tea pot; success comes a moment later with the sound of the faucet running.

“You didn’t sleep? How the hell are you so energetic right now? Guess that phone call with Zayn was _invigorating_ ,” teases Louis.

Liam doesn’t answer and chooses instead to hide in the kitchen until the kettle whistles. His relationship with Zayn is something that’s not exactly a secret, but it’s still relatively new. Sophia knows of course, and she was nothing but supportive when he came out as polyamorous the year before. Louis has had to listen to some very long narratives about how incredible of a girlfriend Sophia is on multiple occasions.

The high pitched noise of the kettle going off is what finally rouses Niall. He jerks awake with a soft _woof_ and looks around sleepily before jumping off the couch and stretching.

“’morning sleeping beauty,” greets Louis. “I was starting to think that my potion actually _did_ turn out bad and you had died or something.”

Niall growls playfully, eyes glinting before he leaps forward and attacks Louis’s face with big slobbery kisses. Louis shrieks (“I did _not_ , Liam, don’t be ridiculous!”) and attempts to push Niall’s furry body off of himself, but his efforts fall short. Niall backs off when Liam comes in and looks about ready to intervene.

“You’re a bloody nuisance, you know that?” gripes Louis, wiping the dog spit off of his face with the back of his hand.

Niall sits back on his haunches, pleased. “You love me, though. You’d miss me if the potion killed me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Think what you want.”

They gather in the kitchen for tea and a spot of breakfast after Louis washes his face off. Niall has to drink his tea out of a bowl, but other than that breakfast is fairly typical. Up until Liam tries to get Niall to eat the dog food that he bought, that is.

“C’mon, you’re a dog now, Niall, you can’t keep eating human food—it could be dangerous! We don’t know the exact effects of the potion, so for now I think it’s best for you to eat food that a dog would eat,” Liam lectures, dumping some of the kibble onto a plate on the floor.

“You just want me to watch me eat this nasty shit while you laugh,” Niall complains, keeping a far distance from the food.

Louis watches the exchange in amusement and almost chokes on his tea when Niall finally gives in to Liam’s pleading and immediately spits it back out.

“Yeah, no. Still got my human taste buds,” sputters Niall. “Get me some water will ya?”

Liam obliges, and he even has the good grace to look a little guilty. “Sorry, mate. It’s just that we wouldn’t want you getting sick while you’re a dog and all that.”

“Quit your worryin’, dickhead. It’s only for a week, innit?” says Niall.

“Six days,” Louis interjects. “Hopefully the antidote actually works, too.”

Both Liam and Niall give him a glare for that one.

“It’ll work, Lou. I have total faith in you,” Liam states, patting Louis on the back a little more aggressively than necessary.

Niall wags his tail in agreement. “Yep, total faith. And if your antidote doesn’t work, I’ll just have to freeload off of you for the rest of my poor, doggy life.”

“Ugh,” Louis groans. “It had better work. I can’t be spending my days lookin’ after your lazy arse.”

Niall calms him by licking his hand. After Liam and Louis clean up after breakfast (Niall follows them around but isn’t much of a help due to his lack of opposable thumbs), they decide to get out of the house by taking a walk in the forest a few blocks over. Getting Niall to wear the leash and collar for the short walk to the woods is a battle of wills. Liam finally gets him relent by promising him a free trip to Nandos when he turns back to his human self.

Louis shakes his head in disbelief as he watches Niall trot happily along the sidewalk, leash pulled taut between where it connects to his collar and where Liam is being dragged along. Normally, Niall wouldn’t stand a chance against Liam, but apparently being a dog has added to his brute strength, because here he is, tugging Liam along the sidewalk while passerby’s stare in disapproval. Louis even hears one woman mutter something about improper obedience training. He can’t believe that this is his life. Taking a walk with two of his best mates, one of them a dog. He needs to reevaluate his life choices at this point.

Once they reach the woods, Liam lets Niall off the leash, and Niall is so happy that he nearly runs headfirst into a thicket.

“Can’t you take off the collar, too?” begs Niall, trying to wedge it off by scratching at it with his back foot.

Liam shrugs. “It’ll just take longer to take it off when you have to wear it on the way back anyways. Plus, I don’t know if I can trust you to cooperate with putting it back on, after that stunt you pulled.”

Niall tilts his head. “Hey, I agreed to wear the damn things, I didn’t say I would walk nicely. I’m sure Zayn would be a good boy for you if you asked nicely, but you’ve got nothin’ over me.”

Liam groans and stalks ahead of them, hood pulled up to hide his face. Louis has to double over from laughing so hard.

“He acts like it’s some big secret, him and Zayn. He’s like a schoolgirl, really,” Louis tells Niall.

“He just makes it too easy. Look at him!” laughs Niall, turning towards where Liam is inspecting a tree very intently.

“Feel kind of bad for him, though,” says Louis. “Even _Harry_ teases him about Zayn, sometimes.”

“When _is_ Haz getting back from his study abroad program, anyways?” Niall asks. “He must’ve learned just about every Norwegian spell by now, he’s been gone so long. Grimmy’s gonna go stir crazy.”

“He’ll be back in less than a month,” Louis tells him. “And he’d better show me a thing or two otherwise we just can’t be friends anymore.”

“Are you talking about Harry?” Liam pipes in, finally rejoining the group. “I just talked to him the other day, actually. He says he’s learned how to cast a spell that lets you talk to penguins.”

“He’s gonna be a regular Eliza Thornberry when he gets back,” mutters Louis.

Witches typically choose a specialization when they’re furthering their studies. There are some who are masters in many different subjects, but those people are far and few between. And with good reason, too, because Louis’s been ready to rip out his own hair on multiple occasions just from learning one subject. He’s chosen potions, while Harry has chosen spell casting, He doesn’t regret choosing potions—he loves brewing, even if he’s still not the best at it—but Harry is just so _good_ at spell casting. He’s got this infuriating talent at picking up spells in just a few tries. Louis can cast a few as well, but he’s no prodigy. Harry isn’t very good at brewing, though, so Louis has that at least.

The three of them traipse along the forest path, Louis occasionally pointing out native plants that are good in potions. He pockets a few mushrooms to take back with him because they’re ridiculously expensive to buy from the market. Niall, in a very dog like fashion, ends up rolling in an unfortunately muddy puddle. To top it off, he shakes himself off within a very close proximity to his two friends. By the end of the walk, they’re all very muddy, and Liam looks a bit distraught.

“You’re definitely getting a bath when we get back,” he announces adamantly.

Louis shakes his head.

“No way in hell are you clogging up my shower drain with all this mud and dog hair. We’re hosing you off outside, got it?” he tells Niall.

Niall’s tail stills its wagging when he realizes that he’s going to have to take a bath outside in cold hose water. He opens his mouth to protest, but Louis cuts him off.

“I wasn’t the one to roll in a puddle of _mud_ ,” he points out.

It’s true, but they still have to tie the leash to a post to keep Niall from running off.  Liam hoses him off thoroughly, then Louis gets to work rubbing almost an entire bottle of shampoo into his coat.

“This feels so weird,” Niall complains, standing forlornly as Louis scrubs at his back. “It’s like I’m wearin’ a wet blanket.”

“We can all have some hot tea when we’re done, yeah?” suggests Liam, rinsing the now thoroughly shampooed Niall.

“That sounds perfect,” says Louis.

He takes the hose from Liam and tries to rinse some of the dirt out of his hair. How it even managed to get that high up is a mystery to him. When they go back inside, he decides to go for a shower to get rid of any remaining mud.

“Don’t go turning yourself into some kind of animal while I’m gone,” Louis instructs, glaring pointedly at Niall.

“It wasn’t labeled,” he hears Niall mumble before he closes the bathroom door.

The next few days pass in a similar fashion. Luckily, Louis’s job is web based, so he doesn’t have to worry about leaving Niall alone in his house or accidentally spoiling the antidote. He’s even convinced Liam to come and spend most of the days with them. He insists on going home for the evening to spend time with Sophia and to make his daily phone call to Zayn, however.

They first discover that Niall has an inability to resist a game of fetch on the third day. They’re back at the trail in the woods (this time avoiding anything that looks remotely like a mud puddle), when Louis finds a large stick. It’s heavy enough that it takes some effort to lift it, so Louis thinks it’ll be fun to see how far Liam can throw it.

“I bet you can’t get it past that tree over there,” he dares him.

Liam considers the tree before shrugging. “Alright mate, but get ready to lose a bet.”

He takes the stick that’s more like a small branch and hurls it as hard as he can. It goes past the tree.

“I win!” Liam cheers, punching the air.

“Whatever, you don’t have to rub it in,” grumbles Louis.

So absorbed are they in their bet that they don’t notice when Niall shoots off after the airborne stick, nor when he returns with it grasped firmly in his jaws. Louis notices first, and a sly grin creeps onto his face when he realizes what this means. Niall is playing _fetch_ with them.

“Well, well, Little Nialler,” Louis sing songs. “What a lovely time you seem to be having.”

Niall drops the stick in dismay, and Louis uses this as his chance to swoop in and snatch the stick away from him.

“Hey! Give that back, it’s mine!” Niall pleads, dancing around Louis’s feet. He doesn’t try to jump on him to get it, which Louis is grateful for, because he’s pretty sure Niall could knock him to the ground easily.

Louis laughs. “It’ll be yours when you go get it!”

He tosses the stick as hard as he can. Admittedly, it doesn’t go as far as when Liam threw it, but it _almost_ gets to the tree. Almost.

Niall runs off after the stick so fast that he overshoots and stumbles over his own feet (paws?) a little. This doesn’t deter him, though, and soon enough he’s racing back to Liam and Louis, prize held proudly in his mouth. He makes sure to stay just out of reach, darting out of range as soon as either of the other two attempt to lunge forward to grab the stick.

“C’mon, Ni, give me the stick,” Liam says.

He’s got Niall corned up against a bush, now. Louis’s sneaking up behind him, and Liam gives Louis a quick, affirmative glance. In a flash, Louis is launching himself over the bush and tackling Niall to the ground. Niall yelps and drops the stick in shock. Liam jumps forward and grabs the prize before Niall can recover, holding it high above his head victoriously.

“I am the champion of all things wooden,” says Liam sagely.

Louis snorts. “I’m sure you are, mate. Especially morning related wood, eh?”

Liam glares at him, but keeps the stick held above his head, mostly to keep it away from Niall. “Oi, shut up, will you?”

“You literally just said you were the champion of all things wooden, mate. I couldn’t resist, you should know better by now,” Louis shrugs.

He’s just about to lift himself off the ground when Niall decides on revenge. Before he can get his feet under him, he’s got dog everywhere. Niall shoves his muzzle into Louis’s face and neck, licking every inch of exposed skin he can, and all Louis can do is yell and try (unsuccessfully) to escape. Instead of helping, Liam, damn him, watches the attack go on in amusement.

“What was that you were saying?” he asks, cupping a hand around his ear. “I didn’t quite hear you!”

“This—this doesn’t change anything, Liam!” Louis pants, finally able to scramble away from Niall.

“God, are we going to have an issue every time we go on a walk?” he asks Niall, brushes the leaves and dirt off his pants.

“Might as well do it now, while I’m extra cute. Gives me more protection when you decide you’ve had enough,” Niall explains, tail wagging furiously.

And boy, does he take advantage. Louis’s had to shower in the past week more than he has in his entire life, it feels like. Mud is constantly _everywhere_ , and Niall’s gotten to the point where he’ll run rampant around the house to avoid being washed off. It doesn’t help that Niall seems to be losing more of his human traits and gaining more canine ones, either. Just the other day Louis came home to Niall gnawing on the leg of his (very expensive!) dining table, and on the fifth day he’d almost dislocated Liam’s shoulder by chasing after a squirrel. Liam and Louis are more than ready to have their friend back.

“Is that nearly done?” Liam asks, peeking over Louis’s shoulder to peer at the antidote. A puff of orange smoke is emitted from the pot, making Liam cough violently. At least it doesn’t reek like a wet dog like the original potion. Louis shoos him away for the hundredth time.

“Like I said, it’ll be done in like ten minutes. Calm down, will you? You’re gonna wear a hole in my floors from all this pacing,” Louis complains.

He’s nervous too, and Liam isn’t helping at all. His stomach feels like he’s swallowed about a dozen butterflies because he’s so afraid he’ll fuck everything up. Niall lifts his head from his paws when Liam stops pacing in favor of tapping his fingers along the countertop. His ears perk up because sometimes counters mean food.

True to his word, Louis finishes the antidote in less than ten minutes with just a dash of diced salamander tail. He’s sure to label the bottle that he pours the bright yellow liquid into this time. Drinking the wrong antidote can be dastardly, as stated many, many times in Louis’s remedial potions book.

“Ni, come see what I have!” Louis calls, filling a bowl with exactly two hundred milliliters of the antidote.

“Food?” asks Niall excitedly, nails clacking on the floor as he scampers over, tail wagging like crazy. He’s stopped talking as much as the week has gone by, which has been a weird contrast to how human Niall normally is.

“Yep, here you go, mate.” Louis sets the bowl on the floor and watches intently as Niall laps it all down.

“Please work, please work,” Liam chants under his breath, knuckles white from gripping the counter so hard.

The change happens quickly, but it’s still slow enough that Louis can catch a glimpse of Niall in a sort of in between state, which he’s pretty sure is going to haunt him for the rest of his life. One second, there’s a big yellow dog standing in his kitchen, and the next there’s Niall. _Human_ Niall. A very _naked_ human Niall.

Liam’s too relieved that it actually worked to give a fuck, apparently, because as soon as Niall is remotely human looking, he’s lunging forward to give him a tight hug.

“Jesus, I was so afraid that wouldn’t work,” murmurs Liam, finally pulling back. His eyes even look a bit damp, and if Louis is being honest with himself, he feels closet to tears as well.

“Yeah. Glad to have you back, mate,” says Louis, patting Niall on the back.

Niall is quiet for a moment, seemingly contemplative.

“So,” he says at last, grinning. “I think Liam owes me Nandos.”

Louis snorts. “Fuckin’ idiot. Go put on some clothes, nobody wants to see your stupid arse any longer.”

Niall’s still laughing when he leaves the kitchen to go borrow some of Louis’s clothes, but he turns around just before he’s out of sight.

“I was serious about that, Liam. Just because I was a dog doesn’t mean I forgot a promise of free food,” he says before disappearing around the corner.

Liam can only roll his eyes. Niall’s an idiot, but at least now he’s a human idiot.


End file.
